Help!

Posted by ESC on May 11, 2000

In Reply to: Help! posted by Barney on May 10, 2000

: : Who said "Waste not, want not"?

: : Thank you!

: See 'phrase - sherri novak 05/09/00 ' on this very page: just down a bit. OK

"Waste not, want not. The less we waste, the less we lack in the future. The proverb has been traced back to 1772, and is first cited in the United States in the 1932 'Topper Takes a Trip' by T. Smith..." From the Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).

A Dictionary of American Proverbs by Wolfgang Mieder & others (Oxford University Press, New York, 1992) cites the 1932 use of the phrase. It also has "1. Those who waste will want. (recorded distribution): Ill. 2. Waste and want; save and have. Rec. dist: Ill. 3. Waste not, want not. Var.: Waste not and you'll want not -- willful waste makes woeful want. Rec. dist: U.S., Can. 1st citation: 1772 Wesley, 'Letters,' ed. Telford ; US1932 Smith, 'Topper Takes a Trip'..."